As the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) encampment in Smith Union surpasses the 24-hour mark, protesters grapple with potential disciplinary actions and call for more community support. As of Friday evening, around 40 protesters remained in the Smith Union encampment.

In an interview with the Orient on Friday afternoon, lead SJP organizer Olivia Kenney ’25 said that they have taken on a “spokesperson” role for the encampment and spent much of the day interfacing with administrators.

Kenney said that Senior Vice President and Dean for Student Affairs Jim Hoppe, who spoke to students at the encampment Friday afternoon, offered to negotiate with Kenney individually—a proposal Kenney has denied in favor of collective negotiation.

“I’d say the decision is in the hands of our whole group at this point as to how to interact and respond to any suggestions that [Hoppe] or any levels of admin may have,” Kenney said.

Kenney, like several students involved in the encampment, received an email Friday morning alerting them to an imminent disciplinary meeting with a dean. Kenney claims many students were given just minutes’ notice ahead of their meetings and accused the College of executing a “bad-faith strategy” to engage with protesters.

“I, myself, at 9:30 a.m. received an email saying that if I do not make it to my disciplinary meeting by 9:40 a.m.—which would be ten minutes later—then I will have a disciplinary process started without my input,” Kenney said.

Kenney did not attend their scheduled meeting. The Office of the Dean of Students has yet to return the Orient’s requests for comment.

Several students who did attend their scheduled meeting with a dean reported being informed of potential disciplinary actions. Benny Adler ’25, who spent Thursday night in Smith Union but left early Friday morning, described his meeting with Senior Associate Dean of Students Lisa Hardej.

“Basically, they were like, ‘You didn’t comply with the reasonable request of an officer, and you were disrupting the space.’ And they reiterated that when I asked what I was doing wrong,” Adler said. “Then they were like, ‘You have some kind of disciplinary probation on the table.’”

“They were very concerned—I thought it was gonna be a parental ‘I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed,’ but it was really just like, ‘I’m super concerned for you,’” Adler added.

According to members of the encampment, the Office of the Dean of Students requested personal statements from students participating in the encampment who had missed their meeting time, setting a deadline for 3:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon. Many of the students responded with the “Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum.”

Students were protesting outside of Smith Union’s locked south entrance as early as 8:30 a.m. this morning, but a larger crowd with over 50 demonstrators began convening just after 10 a.m. Protesters from Bowdoin and local communities chanted, held signs and attempted to communicate with the student protesters inside the building.

At 10:30 a.m, an SJP organizer read a message sent to Bowdoin’s SJP from Birzeit University in the West Bank, Palestine, to the crowd gathered outside of Smith Union.

“‘We woke up this morning to learn the news of your encampment, and we have been following the news of the Solidarity Referendum at Bowdoin and the Students for Justice in Palestine,” the statement reads. “We see you and thank you for raising your voices loudly, for screaming that the spaces of universities are our spaces. It is a space where knowledge is exchanged. It is a space where we imagine to achieve the world we want. The world we want to live in, and not the world that has been thrust upon us.’”

Around noon, Security personnel opened the south doors to speak with protesters, at which point several students pushed past security to enter the building. For several hours thereafter, students held the doors open to allow protesters and supplies to pass through.

As protesters within the encampment navigate day two of the demonstration, so too do members of the Bowdoin and Brunswick communities. Some members from the Maine Coalition for Palestine came to campus this morning to support the encampment.

“These students should just be able to devote themselves to learning, exploring, experimenting, but these young people are taking time out of their educational lives to help their institution make things as right as possible in terms of the investments they’re already invested in,” Sara Almatri, a community member who is part of the Maine Coalition for Palestine, said.

“Hopefully many of us in the community like me see this peaceful protest for what it is, and it’s a desperate attempt to get the higher ups to listen to them,” Almatri said.

Faculty and staff have also shown their support for the movement. At 11:00 a.m. on Friday, Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP), a group representing around 40 members of the Bowdoin community, sent a statement to the Orient to support the encampment and critique the College’s disciplinary response.

“We firmly believe that this campaign represents the core values of Bowdoin College, namely its commitment to the common good,” FSJP wrote, referencing the students’ calls for the College to implement the action items stated in the referendum.

“We are deeply concerned with this administration’s mischaracterization of the student demonstration as disruptive or creating a ‘hostile environment.’ It is also concerning that students were threatened with disciplinary action without adequate notice. Several students reported to us that they had less than ten minutes to get to the dean’s office,” the statement continued.

Some of these faculty members also brought supplies for the students in the encampment throughout the day, which were allowed into the building.

Additionally, at around 7:30 p.m. first year class president Andy Mugisha ’28 and junior class president Timothy Ignacio ’26 sent emails to their respective classes encouraging them to support the encampment in Smith.

Kenney told the Orient Friday afternoon that members of the encampment are planning future actions but declined to offer specifics.

Vaughn Vial and Kristen Kinzler contributed to this report.